The present invention relates to a method and equipment for customizing prepaid service.
In telecommunications systems, such as the pan-European digital mobile communications system GSM (Global System for Mobile Communications), the use of prepaid SIM (Subscriber Identity Module) cards is increasing. Prepaid SIM cards relieve the network service providers of credit losses. They enable parents to set an upper limit for the telephone bill beforehand. As a third benefit, they enable roaming subscribers to pay their local calls with local tariffs, whereas the use of a SIM card of their home service provider results in paying international tariffs to their home network and back.
Usually service providers allow the subscribers to call an Interactive Voice Response (IVR) service through which the service subscribers can check their account balance and add more money to their accounts. This money adding is called recharge. Instead of calling the IVR it is possible to also call to the operator's service number. It is also possible to check the account balance and recharge via the SMAP, which is an Internet-based user interface. Recharge is carried out by means of vouchers. Some service providers sell different types of vouchers, which differ from each other e.g. in the number of call units and expiry time.
One problem with the current prepaid solution is that the attributes of the prepaid service are the same to all subscribers—or at least to all subscribers using the same kinds of vouchers since the attributes are connected with the voucher. So the operators are not able to offer a customized prepaid service. One example of a prepaid service attribute is how the prepaid subscription data is updated during recharge.